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Minnesota Timberwolves: Tom Thibodeau Wants To Improve Offense

By James D. Tillman III

Mar 21, 2015; Auburn Hills, MI, USA; Chicago Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau smiles before the game against the Detroit Pistons at The Palace of Auburn Hills. Mandatory Credit: Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 21, 2015; Auburn Hills, MI, USA; Chicago Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau smiles before the game against the Detroit Pistons at The Palace of Auburn Hills. Mandatory Credit: Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Minnesota Timberwolves are hoping that former Chicago Bulls coach, Tom Thibodeau, will help them become a perennial playoff contender.

The Minnesota Timberwolves finished the 2015-16 campaign winning four of their last five games. This included impressive road victories against two playoff teams: the Golden State Warriors and Portland Trail Blazers.

Despite ending the season on somewhat of a high note, however, the Timberwolves managed to produce a less-than-impressive 29-53 record — a mark that was better than just two other teams in the Western Conference: the Phoenix Suns (23-59) and the woeful Los Angles Lakers (17-65), who had their worst season in franchise history.

Although the Timberwolves were in the middle of the pack in terms of scoring (102.4 points per game), there are areas in which the team needs to show improvement. For starters, the Timberwolves gave up 106 points per outing, placing them at 23rd in this category.

Along with that, they ranked 28th in defensive rating, giving up 110.1 points per 100 possessions, per Basketball-Reference.com. As if those numbers weren’t bad enough, it is also worth mentioning that last season marked the 12th straight year in which the Timberwolves failed to qualify for the playoffs.

That being said, a change was sorely needed.

In an attempt to help move the team in the right direction, the Timberwolves gave Tom Thibodeau a five-year, $40 million deal not only to coach, but to oversee the basketball operations as well.

This move made a lot of sense on several levels. During his five-year tenure with the Chicago Bulls, Thibodeau compiled a 255-139 record. That’s a 65 percent winning percentage for those of you doing the math at home.

Under his guidance, the Bulls reached the playoffs in all five seasons — including holding the best record in the NBA in each of his first two seasons (2010-12).

Furthermore, the Bulls never finished lower than third in points allowed in four of Thibodeau’s five seasons in the Windy City. Needless to say, his body of work speaks for itself.

While Thibodeau has earned the reputation of being a defensive mastermind, one of the areas he feels that contributed to the Timberwolves’ 29-win season from a year ago was a lack of three-point shooting.

From ESPN’ Brian Windhorst:

"When examining how the Wolves can break their 12-year playoff drought, Thibodeau immediately pointed to the 3-point line. The Wolves finished 29th in 3-point attempts and makes last season.“We gave up nine [3-pointers] a game, and we made only five and a half,” Thibodeau said. “That’s like starting the game 10 points behind.”"

Thibodeau’s comments should be considered significant considering that a few of those Bulls teams he coached didn’t take a lot of three-pointers. In fact, they finished 29th in attempts during the 2012-13 season and followed that up with a 28th-place finish in 2013-14, according to TeamRankings.com.

After being away from the game for a year, though, it appears that the old-school coach is taking a different approach to the game as he begins his second head coaching stint. Whether or not the Timberwolves have the right personnel to help Thibodeau’s new-found philosophy come to fruition remains to be seen.

But if the Timberwolves are going to take the next step towards becoming a playoff team like I predicted a few weeks ago, part of that will be because they were able to successfully become a better three-point shooting team.

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